School Has Begun

This week has begun a new phase in the life of Daughter of Purpose. When she came home in May, I had planned on giving her at least a year before I did any formal education with her. I figured she'd just work on learning English this school year. As she progressed, I thought maybe I'd work in some preschool activities in the Spring. Well, we haven't even made it to Thanksgiving and I officially began school with her this week.

You see, last week she brought me a piece of paper with her name on it. She wrote her name herself. She taught herself how to write her own name.

A few weeks back, I called up the stairs to her and asked her what color shirt she was wearing. In between when I did that and she answered, I remembered what she was wearing. I knew she had on a red shirt and black pants. This was her response to my question, "I wearing red on top, Mama, and black pants." I was amazed at her ability to respond with the right colors.

Just yesterday, I was counting down to something (I can't even remember now what it was) from 5. It went like this, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1." I was done. Daughter of Purpose pipes up..."Mama, you forgot zero. Zero next."

Well, if those things don't make it clear enough that obviously Daughter of Purpose is ready for me to purposefully work with her, here's a little more case in point. I will not kid you, last week was a tough week for Daughter of Purpose. She had a stuffed up nose and I learned very quickly that if she does not feel well, she does not listen and obey well either. I asked a few friends if they wanted to lease her awhile, but there were no takers. So I had to do some thinking about what may be going on beside being sick. This is what I came up with.

Every day we do our schooling from 8 am- 2 pm. That means that pretty much from the moment that Daughter of Purpose rises in the morning until lunch time, she is unintentionally pushed off to the side while I school everyone else. She's usually playing with one or more of her siblings, but by about 11:00 am each morning she's done with them and makes it very clear with her behavior that she is trying to get my attention. She is crying out for me to spend some time with her. Well, I thought I had remedied that by making sure that I put her down for nap and spent time reading books to her before I returned to finish off schooling with the other kids. Lately this has not been enough.

So with all of these pieces in mind, I started preschool with Daughter of Purpose this week and I was right on. She is more than ready. She ate it up and kept asking to do more school. I had prepped quite a bit, but apparently I will need to prepare even more for this upcoming week. Off we go on a new adventure...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."